FFWD Weekly
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| CITY The Calgary Folk Music Festival and its supporters are back on the defensive again despite overwhelming support for the event from the community and City Council. The festival society has learned that its 1998 noise bylaw exemption permit is being appealed Thursday, June 18. As a result, the festival's exemption to go until 11 p.m. on the Friday and Saturday nights, July 24 and 25, may be turned down. Dan Evans, vice-chair of the board of directors for the festival, is frustrated that the issue still isn't resolved. "We believe the issue has gone to council and council had spoken very clearly that the folk festival should be able to continue to operate on the island," he says. He refers to the April 6 meeting at which council voted 11 to 4 in favor of an amendment to the Prince's Island Master Plan allowing groups using the park to apply for an exemption to the Noise Bylaw. The alderman voting in favor of the amendment included Dave Bronconnier, Bob Hawkesworth, Joe Ceci, Barry Erskine, Jon Lord, Ray Clark, Linda Fox-Mellway, Joanne Kerr, John Schmal, Ray Jones and Mayor Al Duerr. Those opposed included Dale Hodges, Sue Higgins, Patti Grier and Bev Longstaff (whose ward includes the park). The June 18 appeal will be heard by the License Appeal Board, which is made up of five alderman including three who opposed the amendment - Hodges, Higgins and Grier. Evans says it is unclear whether the members on the appeal board will feel bound by council's previous decision to support the master plan amendment. "There seems to be this political glitch where the whole issue is being sent to committee...," he adds. "It's kind of a case of shuffling the jury another time in order to get a different decision." The master plan and the issue of noise control has already been debated at two meetings of the Community and Protective Services Committee, one meeting of City Council, and will now resurface at the appeal, where some aldermen will be voting on the same issue for the fourth time. The Folk Festival will not be told who is making the appeal or on what grounds until the appeal itself, but its understanding is that the appeal is based on a single letter from the Hillhurst/Sunnyside community association. Association president Tim Tyler confirms a letter was sent to the city clerk stating that the association opposes the exemption and requests an appeal. The letter, signed by Jim Besse, co-chair of the environment committee, appeals the exemption based on the following: the reasons for the exemption as stated in the application will not be compromised by maintaining noise bylaw standards; there have been too many complaints regarding previous folk festivals; four nights of music running until 10 p.m. is enough and going until 11 p.m. is unwarranted; and allowing the festival to run until 11 p.m. sets a precedent for other festivals. Evans questions why the debate is continuing at another level when research indicates 75 per cent of residents in Hillhurst/Sunnyside support maintaining the current level of festival activity. "Exactly who is launching this appeal, then?" he asks. "It seems just a few people in the community are able to keep this alive when we thought it had been dealt with." He adds that last year the festival had an exemption to go to 11 p.m. Thursday through Sunday at 85 decibels, while this year it gave up Thursday and Sunday and is only asking for 65 decibels. "We feel that we've made huge concessions already." If the festival is forced to the point that it cannot get an exemption to run until 11 p.m. the two nights, Evans says it will be forced to make major revisions to the lineup, including changing the times for headline acts such as Ashley MacIsaac and possibly cancelling performances by other musicians. With just over a month remaining until the festival takes place, he expects any problems or changes will hurt ticket sales and jeopardize future events. The Prince's Island issue has taken up a lot of time which organizers would prefer to put into the folk festival itself. "We're trying to put on a festival and we keep falling back and having to defend our actions to a very small number of people, " Evans says. He is hoping Calgarians will once again make the effort to phone their alderman to voice their support for such events so that the debate can be resolved and the board can move forward. The Calgary Folk Music Festival is scheduled July 23 to 26 at Prince's Island Park. |
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